Pale Blue Dot

  Pale Blue Dot

Below is the text for a wonderful video packed with vocabulary words you will watch at the end of the reading. In order to complete the assignment here are the steps for you to take. Take your time and follow the steps carefully.

1. First, read each part and try to understand the ideas without looking up every word in the dictionary; just try to get the idea. In a small vocabulary notbook copy the new words.

     A.) Look up some of the new vocabulary in a dictionary; then read the passage again with the new words meaning in mind.

     B.) After that, listen and follow my reading; & read along with me if you like;

     C.) Then watch the video "Pale Blue Dot" a couple of times. It is below, near the bottom of this page.

     D.) Make your list of new words, and then make 5 new sentences with some of the words on your list. Do not copy sentences from the text. (10 points)

     E.) After that, submit your thoughts about the video. You may submit your thoughts in a Word Document or in a media (audio/ video) recording. (10 points)

**** TEXT ****

“From this vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest, but for us it is different.

Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar", every "supreme leader", every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there - on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. Play media comment.this is a media comment

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. Play media comment.this is a media comment

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. 

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”   3rdPart_Listening_PaleBlueDot.mp3 Download 3rdPart_Listening_PaleBlueDot.mp3Play media comment. 

2. Watch the video and read along. Please click on this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupToqz1e2g Links to an external site.

3. Use the tab "Submit Assignments" on the top-right of this page to submit your list of new words, your 5 sentences, and your thoughts about the video.